Jezebel: World War Ii

Pearl Harbor Lady Firefighter Mystery Solved

Margaret Hartmann — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:50:00 EST

There's a surprising resolution to MSNBC's effort to learn more about a photo of women fighting fires caused by the attack on Pearl Harbor: The picture wasn't taken during the bombing and the women aren't even putting out a fire in the photo. However, the real story is still pretty interesting. More »

Who Are The Female Firefighters In This Pearl Harbor Photo?

Margaret Hartmann — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:05:52 EST

In honor of the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor yesterday, MSNBC posted a series of photos taken that day, including one amazing shot of female firefighters directing a hose shortly after the bombing. Many readers asked questions about the women and now the site is trying to use the power of the internet to identify them. Hopefully they're still around, because it looks like they'd have a hell of a story. More »

Jewish Girl's Memoir Describes Outwitting Nazis

Margaret Hartmann — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:40:00 EDT

Next year the British publisher of Anne Frank's diary will release a diary by Helga Weiss, one of the few children from the Czech ghetto of Terezin who survived Auschwitz. Weiss, who grew up to be an internationally known artist, was confronted by Josef Mengele in the camps, but managed to save herself and her mother by convincing guards that she was older and her mother was much younger. More »

Women Today Are More Drunk Than Ever

Anna North — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:45:00 EDT

New research shows that women born after World War II are more likely to binge-drink than those born in previous decades. Why are ladies getting drunker than they used to? More »

Coco Chanel Was Allegedly A Nazi Spy

Jenna Sauers — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EDT

A new biography of Coco Chanel sheds more light on her wartime activities, and the house of Chanel seems to be bracing itself for backlash. What was ol' Gabrielle up to during World War II? Palling around with Nazis at the Ritz, basically — but the house of Chanel is denying that its founder and namesake spied for the German regime, and that she was actually anti-Semitic. Coco Chanel had an affair with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a Nazi military intelligence officer and immediate subordinate of Joseph Goebbels, during World War II, and was close with Walter Schellenberg, the Nazi head of foreign intelligence; she also sought to wrest control of the Chanel company from her Jewish business partners, the Wertheimers, under the Nazi anti-Jewish ownership laws. (She failed because the Wertheimers had secretly transferred ownership of the company to a Christian prior to the Nazi invasion of France.) Coco Chanel lived in Switzerland for nine years after the war's end, in part to avoid prosecution as a collaborator; although her ties to various Nazi figures have long been well-known, the author of Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War has added significant original research to our understanding of that period of her life. The book even makes the claim that Coco Chanel herself was a Nazi spy. Author Hal Vaughan says, "I was looking for something else and I come across this document saying 'Chanel is a Nazi agent, her number is blah, blah, blah and her pseudonym is Westminster.' I look at this again and I say, 'What the hell is this?' I couldn't believe my eyes! Then I really started hunting through all of the archives, in the United States, in London, in Berlin and in Rome and I come across not one, but 20, 30, 40 absolutely solid archival materials on Chanel and her lover, Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage, who was a professional Abwehr spy." Modern-day Chanel's response? "She would hardly have formed a relationship with the family of the owners or counted Jewish people among her close friends and professional partners such as the Rothschild family, the photographer Irving Penn or the well-known French writer Joseph Kessel had these really been her views." So, basically, she had Jewish friends. Chanel also denies that Coco Chanel spied for the Nazi regime, calls the timing of her relationship with Dincklage "unfortunate" but points out that his mother was English (as though that mattered), and asserts that she approached Winston Churchill about "acting as an intermediary between the Allies and the Germans for a peace settlement known as Operation Modelhut." That makes Operation Modelhut sound pretty benign, but the truth is a lot more complicated; the Times of London called Operation Modelhut a "Nazi plot" that was to use Coco Chanel as "bait." [Vogue UK] More »

The Secret Plot To Turn Hitler Into A Lady

Margaret Hartmann — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:15:00 EDT

According to recently declassified documents, during World War II British spies hatched a cunning plan to beat Hitler: Simply slip estrogen into his food until he becomes feminized and loses interest in the whole "take over the world" thing. It would have worked too, because everyone knows ladies can't be mass-murdering monsters! More »

French Resistance Hero Nancy Wake Dies At 98

Margaret Hartmann — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:02:00 EDT

Today in "ladies we probably should have learned about in history class," we have Nancy Wake, a freelance journalist turned high-society hostess turned decorated French resistance hero, who died last Sunday in London at 98. During World War II, Wake escorted hundreds of Allied troops through occupied France, helped set up communication lines between the British military and the French Resistance, and even killed a Nazi sentry with her bare hands. Wake, who Germans dubbed the "White Mouse" for her ability to evade capture, once said of her wartime activities, "I don't see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclavas." More »

The Dior Family's Strange Wartime History

Jenna Sauers — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:58:00 EDT

Ten days ago in Paris, just before the most recent Christian Dior fashion show, company C.E.O. Sidney Toledano took the highly unusual step of getting up on the runway to make a speech. The circumstances that led Toledano to take this action were, too, highly abnormal: Dior's creative director of fifteen years, John Galliano, had been arrested days before for allegedly harassing two strangers with an anti-Semitic and racist diatribe. Another, similar, criminal complaint had just been made by an alleged second Galliano victim, and there had also been the release of that now notorious cell phone video of Galliano telling a third group of people, "I love Hitler. People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, you'd all be fucking gassed." Dior suspended Galliano after his arrest, and fired him almost as soon as the video, brokered by a paparazzi agency, hit the Internet. But before the fall Dior collection — the last Galliano work that will sell under the Dior name — Toledano felt the need to explain himself and limit any damage to a brand that realized revenues of over $28 billion last year. Toledano's speech read, in part: More »

The Many Incarnations Of Rosie The Riveter

Irin Carmon — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:10:58 EDT

Rosie the Riveter's unsmiling determination, flexed arm emerging from those briskly rolled up sleeves, has been a symbol of female strength since it was introduced in 1942. Here, some reinterpretations (and co-optations) through the ages. More »

I Dream Of Deanie

Anna Holmes — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:10:00 EST

[Washington, D.C., March 10. Image via Getty]

Don't Worry! Wartime Propaganda Creates, Assuages Fears

Sadie Stein — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST

From the Minneapolis Star-Journal, 1940: "The German baby crop, unlike cabbages, can't be increased at command of Fuehrer Hitler." Good thing: German babies are apparently terrifying. [Star-Tribune] More »

Union/Pacific

Anna Holmes — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:10:00 EST

[New York, December 7. Image via Getty]

Profile In Courage

Sadie Stein — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EDT

Susan Travers may be the most amazing woman you've never heard of: an English socialite who became a Free French ambulance driver, she earned the Legion d'Honneur and become the only woman in the French Foreign Legion. [BBC] More »

"Just Because I Was Female, They Wouldn't Let Me Parachute...I Still Feel Cross."

Sadie Stein — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:20:00 EDT

"It was the sort of interesting job men like to do and not let women in...But we were very fortunate. The war gave us an opportunity," says one of the remarkable women whose war experience is profiled in the Telegraph: More »

It's Me, Margaret

Anna Holmes — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:10:00 EDT

[London, September 1. Image via Getty]

"So It Has Come."

Sadie Stein — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EDT

This series of love letters between the author's parents in the dark days of 1939 England is a fascinating peek into lives, history - and the lost art of correspondence. [TimesUK] More »

Period Pieces

Anna Holmes — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:10:00 EDT

[Prague, September 1. Image via Getty]

Modern Beauty Shop: Winning The War, One Curl At A Time

Dodai Stewart — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:20:00 EDT

Modern Beauty Shop: Winning The War, One Curl At A Time" alt="Click here to read Modern Beauty Shop: Winning The War, One Curl At A Time" src="http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/images/39/2009/08/1942MODERNBEAUTYCOVER.jpg"/>

Recently, a reader sent us a link to this ShopBop "trend" story called Wartime. "Fashion is war," reads the copy. No. It isn't. But in the pages of 1942's Modern Beauty Shop, war was a major theme. War… and hair! More »

The 'Comfort' Of Strangers

Anna Holmes — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:10:00 EDT

[Manila, August 12. Image via Getty]

Pacific Theater

Anna Holmes — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:10:00 EDT

[Mumbai, August 6. Image via Getty]

Enfants Terribles: French Children Of German Soldiers Seek Closure

Sadie Stein — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EDT

After decades of shame and secrecy, les enfants de Boches - the products of French mothers and German soldiers - are trying to get some acknowledgment before it's too late. More »

Flags Of Her Fathers

Anna Holmes — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:10:00 EDT

[Colleville-sur-Mer, France; June 5. Image via Getty]

The Forest For The Trees

Anna Holmes — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:10:00 EDT

["Ljubelj South", Slovenia; June 5. Image via Getty]

The Keen Berets

Anna Holmes — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:10:00 EDT

[Colleville-Montgommery, England; June 5. Image via Getty]

Hold Comfort

Anna Holmes — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:10:00 EDT

[Manila, May 13. Image via Getty]

Doing The Whirly-Jig

Anna Holmes — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:10:00 EDT

[Minsk, May 9. Image via Getty]

"Comfort Women" Seek Their Own Comfort

Sadie Stein — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:00:00 EDT

"Part Golden Girls, part adamant activists," South Korea's former sex slaves make the House of Sharing a unique retirement community. More »

"I Do Have To Watch Out For My Complexion, Though"

Sadie Stein — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:40:00 EDT

"Dick enlisted two months before Pearl Harbor - I wanted to be doing something necessary, too, so I found my job helping to build planes." [Vintage Ads] More »

Light A Candle

Anna Holmes — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:10:00 EDT

[Washington, D.C., April 21. Image via Getty]

Set Your TiVo: Amazing Woman Gets Her Due (Or, At Least Her TV Movie)

Sadie Stein — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Irena Sendler is someone whose story really should be told: the woman saved 2,500 children during the Holocaust. More »

Muse Asylum

Sadie Stein — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:30:00 EST

Dina Vierny began posing for the sculptor Aristide Maillol as a teenager in order to earn pocket money. More »

The new documentary Inheritance is about...

Margaret Hartmann — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:30:00 EST

The new documentary Inheritance is about the meeting between Monika Hertwig, daughter of brutal Nazi commander Amon Goeth (played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List), and Helen Jonas, who was forced to serve as Goeth's personal maid, more than a half century after Goeth was hanged for war crimes. In an NPR interview, Jonas explains that she was hesitant to meet with the daughter of the man who tortured her until Hertwig told her, "I know that it's very hard for you because it's hard for me as well, but we have to do it for the murdered people," in a letter. "I feel that she's a victim as well," said Jonas. "As sad as it was for me to tell her who her father was, I had to tell her the truth. She wanted to know the truth." The film will be on PBS as part of the POV series starting December 10. [NPR] More »

Edith Shain, 90, who claims to be the woman...

Margaret Hartmann — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:20:00 EST

Edith Shain, 90, who claims to be the woman in the famous 1945 photo of a nurse being kissed by a sailor on V-J Day, recreated the photo with actors from the Broadway show South Pacific days before she'll serve as the grand marshal of NY's Veterans Day parade. Several people have claimed to be part of the iconic picture throughout the years, but Alfred Eisenstaedt, the late Life magazine photographer, was never able to positively identify the duo. Shain insists she is the woman, but says she couldn't identify the man because he just grabbed her and kissed her. "I didn't mind because he was someone who had fought for me," she said. "As for the picture, it says so many things - hope, love, peace, and tomorrow," said Shain. "The end of the war was a wonderful experience, and that photo represents all those feelings." [AP] More »

Julia Child: International Woman Of Mystery

Sadie Stein — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:20:00 EDT

Awesome! It seems that during World War II, French Chef Julia Child was a spy — one can only assume the least inconspicuous spy in the history of the world. It has just been revealed that Child was part of an international anti-Nazi spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA. The previously classified files will identify the "nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States." The OSS, which included civilians from all walks of life, "studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops." Post-war, the agency was absorbed into the nascent CIA, and the many spies in the network never spoke about their covert activities. "I was told to keep my mouth shut," says 93-year-old Walter Mess. Or, in the case of Julia, to fill it with foie gras. [AP] More »

Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself: Springtime for Hitler, Part II

lizzies — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:00:00 EDT

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Welcome to 'Fine Lines', the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth. This week, writer / reviewer / blogger Lizzie Skurnick rereads 'Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself', Judy Blume's 1977 story of Sally Freedman, who, following WWII, spends a year in Miami and triumphs over Hitler and Man O' Wars.

We were slow on the uptake, but we wanted...

Jennifer — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:30:00 EDT

We were slow on the uptake, but we wanted to be sure to call out a fascinating obit that ran in the New York Times on Tuesday: Pearl Cornioley, who died in late February at the age of 93, was a top resistance fighter for the British and French during World War II and is believed to have been the inspiration for the book and subsequent movie Charlotte Grey. She "was 29 when she was sent to France in 1943, commanded troops who killed 1,000 German soldiers and wounded many more — while suffering only a tiny number of casualties themselves. She presided over the surrender of 18,000 German troops" and frequently "carr[ied] a case of cosmetics to pose as a traveling saleswoman" to avoid suspicion. When she was offered by the Queen to be made a civil, as opposed to military, Member of the British Empire, Cornioley turned down the offer, explaining via letter that her actions during World War II were anything but "civil." [NYT] More »

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

eurotrash — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:49:54 EST

We hate to get all heavy and Oprah on y'all (pardon the pun), but let's get just a wee bit serious for a moment. More »